Renato Gomes is the Deputy-Governor for Licensing and Resolution of the Central Bank of Brazil. Among other responsibilities, he is in charge of the Central Bank’s competition and innovation policies. Born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Renato holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Economics from PUC-RJ, a PhD from Northwestern University and an HDR from the University of Toulouse. Before joining the Central Bank, he was Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics and Senior Researcher at the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (France). Specialist in Economics of the Public Sector and Industrial Organization, he has written articles on auction design, competition policy and regulation of payment methods.

Richard Palmer, Ph.D., CPA, CMA is a senior lecturer at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to academic work, he held management positions in both public accounting and the banking industry.

Richard is one of the world’s foremost experts on business and government applications of commercial card payment technology. His research has been quoted in U.S. Senate hearings, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News Good Morning America, Business Week, CNN Money, and CBS News MarketWatch, among others. His publications include numerous academic and practice-oriented journals, including the Journal of Accountancy, CPA Journal, Treasury and Risk, Journal of Payment Systems and Strategy, Strategic Finance, and Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting.

His most notable contribution to the commercial card world is as the co-creator (with Mahendra Gupta of Washington University in St. Louis) of purchasing card, travel card, and virtual card benchmark surveys, efforts that have included every major card issuer and over eight thousand commercial card-using organizations since 1998.

Lizzie is the head of Commercial Banking Commercial Card product, serving the Middle Market and corporate clients, from pre-profit startups to $2B-sized corporations. She has spent most of her career in strategy, consulting for Fortune 100 clients to venture-backed startups. She has led teams to define go-to-market strategies, create operating models, and ideate customer-centric offerings, among other functions. She received her MBA from Chicago Booth, and has been selected as one of 30 women future leaders in payments by Money 20/20 in 2021 and for ETA Transact’s Forty under 40 leaders of the payments industry in 2023.

Holly Tennent is the Treasury Product Manager for Virtual Payables and Network Strategy at Bank of America. In her position, Holly plays a key role in shaping the B2B card and payables solutions strategy including fintech partnerships, client enhancements and supplier experience. Prior to joining Bank of America, Holly spent nine years at Bottomline Technologies, most recently in a solutions consultant capacity supporting Bank of America where she assisted clients with the functional and technical aspects of the Paymode-X solution. She believes in building lasting relationships and trusted partnerships, shown through her attention to detail and ongoing focus on the client experience. Holly is a graduate of St. Lawrence University where she was a national competitor on the Equestrian team.

Tony leads the Umpqua Bank Commercial Card sales, support, and supplier enablement teams as well as our merchant services partnership with WorldPay. Tony also co-leads Umpqua Bank’s cross functional payments council to help explore new and developing consumer and business payments. Tony came to Umpqua Bank through the Sterling Bank merger in 2014 and has been with the combined companies since 2004 leading and growing the bank’s card based payments business. Tony began his career in 1992 with West One Bank and has held various roles at US Bank, Wells Fargo, and local community banks and has 25+ years of experience in payments, cards, and acquiring business lines. A graduate of University of Oregon, Northwest Intermediate Banking School, and the ABA School of Bankcard Management, Tony lives in Portland Oregon with his wife and 3 daughters. He serves as Treasurer of Eastside Portland Lacrosse, coaches youth volleyball and is an avid Oregon Ducks fan.

Joining Commerce Bank in 2013, Jason brings almost 20 years of experience in the invoice process and payment industry. In his role, Jason manages a team of solution consultants and also consults with clients in various industries to determine where efficiencies would be gained and cost savings realized in their accounts payable process. Jason is able to analyze the current AP process while establishing strategic goals and outlining the steps and best practices required to automate processes within AP. He also arms businesses with comprehensive ROI justifications through inclusive payments strategies.

Erik VanBramer was named senior vice president and national sales director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Customer Relations and Support Office (CRSO) effective April 2018. VanBramer has served as the national sales director since 2017 and was previously vice president and director of the Federal Reserve Bank’s national account program. In his current role, he is responsible for setting and implementing the strategy for managing the relationships and financial services offerings for financial institutions across the Federal Reserve System.

VanBramer joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1998 and transitioned to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2005. His tenure with the Federal Reserve has encompassed multiple areas of management responsibility to include operations, internal support functions, as well as business development. VanBramer was promoted to assistant vice president and national account executive in 2010. He was promoted to vice president in 2014 with responsibility for leading the group which managed the relationships for the large and complex financial institutions.

VanBramer holds a bachelor’s degree from The Colorado College and has done additional graduate studies at The Lake Forest Graduate School of Business, The Booth School of Business, and obtained his certificate from the Graduate School of Banking at The University of Colorado. He serves on several boards throughout the Denver metro area with particular interest in injury prevention and underserved children and communities.

Ray joined Webster Bank in July 2023 as Managing Director, Enterprise Payments and currently leads Product Management for Commercial Card. Ray oversees several disciplines to drive competitive differentiation including strategy, innovation, partnership development and most importantly, customer experience for its Commercial Banking customers. Previously, Ray held similar roles at Citizens Bank and prior to that, led Commercial Products at Mastercard in North America managing Product development and management initiatives for the small business, mid-market, large market and public-sector segments. Ray was charged with developing a differentiated product strategy across a host of Commercial Card assets. In addition, Ray also led Mastercard’s relationships with a number of issuers including J P Morgan, WEX, HSBC, and Citizens spanning credit, debit, prepaid, cobrand, and commercial card portfolios. Ray lives in Connecticut with his wife and 2 daughters.

With over 15 years of experience in financial services and consulting, I am a seasoned leader and strategist in the payments and transaction banking domain. I have led and delivered high-impact initiatives across corporate strategy, sales, product, operations, and technology for leading banks, fintechs, bank-owned market infrastructure, and consulting firms.

As the Head of North America Payments Advisory at JPMorgan, I focus on industry trends, client innovation, and business development. I leverage my expertise in payment strategy and new business development to help clients navigate the rapidly evolving payments landscape and achieve their growth objectives. I also collaborate with internal and external partners to create and execute the vision and roadmap for JPMorgan payments offerings and capabilities.

Jami Stapelmann brings knowledge and experience in strategic planning, project management and innovation concentrated in the travel/hospitality sector. Ms. Stapelmann has held various management and leadership positions throughout her career. Her current role at Estee Lauder Companies, is Executive Director Global Travel and Meeting Services.
BTN named Jami Stapelmann as a 2022 Best Practitioner for her partnership strategies that connect companies to Estee Lauder Companies beyond their shared travel goals. She was recently named one of the Top 25 Influencers in the Meetings Industry by Successful Meetings and was selected as one of the Top 25 Women in the Meetings Industry by Meetings and Conventions Magazine, October, 2017.
Jami holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin and GLP designation from the Wharton School.

Experienced finance and strategic planning leader recognized for delivering results, driving innovation, and developing high performing teams. Trusted advisor and financial partner to business management by acquiring an in-depth understanding of the business activities and developing insights to drive business growth and mitigate risks. Over ten years of combined Finance experience with significant work experience in FP&A, CCAR/PPNR and stress testing, financial model development, and financial planning and analytics. Hands-on experience designing, implementing, and leading processes in a large multinational organization.

I am originally from Panama, and I have had the privilege to develop my professional career globally.

In the U.K., I pursued a Master’s in Operations, project and supply chain management at Manchester Business School, after which I joined First TransPennine Express to contribute to the development of their revenue management strategy.

In Panama, I joined the Panama Canal Authority and led a team in charge of financial modeling of trade volumes, identification of new markets, and pricing strategy. In this position I got fascinated about finance, which led me to the decision to undertake an MBA at Yale.

During my MBA in the U.S., I joined American Express as an Intern in 2016 and returned full time in 2017. As a Director in Amex since 2019, I have led two Director teams (5+ colleagues), spearheaded Amex’s B2B acceleration strategy, developed product strategy for lending products, launched marketing campaigns, created infrastructure for internal analytics, delivered infrastructure uplifts for customer facing features, and led pricing strategy.

Yusuf Qasim is President of Payments Optimization at Zelis, where he leads the division’s strategy and operations to further drive Zelis’ market leadership, capabilities and client services in payments and communications.

Yusuf became President of Payments Optimization in April 2021. Prior to this operating committee role, he served as Executive Vice President of Enterprise Development and as such, was deeply involved in the formation of Zelis and in the company’s 2019 foundational merger with RedCard.

In 2011, he co-founded Pay-Plus Solutions, the company that is now Zelis’ Payments business and he continues to be an advocate and innovator in the digital payments space. With deep expertise in the financial experience of healthcare, Yusuf fiercely believes that the business of healthcare needs modernization to fulfill the needs of patients and consumers in this country. Yusuf is a serial entrepreneur with experience in the technology, financial services, and healthcare industries.

Yusuf launched his first business, DigitalEffex, an early IT start-up for building mobile applications, more than 20 years ago.

He has held leadership roles in Business Development, Sales, Strategy and Technology and has worked with companies such as AOL, InComm Inc., MTV, Sony, MGM Grand and Foxwoods.

Yusuf has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Quinnipiac University. He serves on the board of directors for Prepaid Technologies and the Rutgers University Design Thinking Certificate Program. He has been recognized as a New Jersey Tech Council Top Innovators to Watch and is a contributing member of the Forbes Business Council. Yusuf is also a 5x Ironman Triathlon Finisher and enjoys traveling.

Seasoned product leader with deep expertise in building customer facing products and enterprise platforms. Am passionate about customer experience. Managed all aspects right from product strategy and roadmap, feature definition, empathy/journey mapping, A/B and MVT testing, user research to managing stakeholders, developers, designers and POs. I am passionate about building products and platforms that drive engagement and value. I love iterating quickly and often. Experienced people leader with a proven track record of collaborating and managing high performing teams

Raghu Adiraju, a seasoned global fintech executive with proven P&L ownership, brings over a decade of expertise in B2B Payments. Navigating business development, product management, and forging strategic partnerships across issuing and acquiring, Raghu showcases consistent forward-thinking leadership in the dynamic landscape of Payments.

Beyond his adeptness in Payments, Raghu stands out as a dedicated and growth-focused leader. His commitment extends beyond revenue generation, encompassing the proactive nurturing of his team’s professional development, fostering enduring relationships, and curating an environment conducive to continual growth.

With a solid analytical background, he is equally fervent about spearheading generative AI initiatives.

Connect with Raghu for insightful discussions on B2B payments, analytics, generative AI, or strategies for team growth.

Dean Leavitt is the founder and CEO of Boost Payment Solutions, the only acquirer in the United States focused exclusively on the business-to-business electronic payments. Dean is a well-respected veteran of the electronic payments industry with nearly 25 years of experience in various leadership roles at both public and private companies. Dean has received numerous awards from his industry peers and is often asked to speak at industry events. Dean currently serves on the advisory board of Commercial Payments International, having previously served two terms on the board of directors of the Electronic Transaction Association. Dean holds a B.A. with high honors from Emory University, where he served on the college’s Alumni Board of Trustees from 2002-2008.